


Where the Horrors Can't Hurt Us

by stellarparallax



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Canon, Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 09:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15726768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: Post-S7 fluff and comfort.





	Where the Horrors Can't Hurt Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for my wonderful friend Casey (@bigsheithenergy on tumblr)!

It happened in slow motion. Whatever-the-hell-it’s-called was coming at Voltron, hurtling blasts of charged up quintessence at them. It was like nothing that they’d ever encountered before. Not even Lotor’s Sincline ship fought with such raw unfettered power. The fatigue that they had built up from hours of fighting Sendak was starting to take a toll on them. Even Keith was reaching his limit. 

He clenched his jaw, trying to stay grounded. He had to focus. He had to think of a strategy to get them out of that mess.

Voltron was backed into the corner. It had nowhere to go. It wasn’t like the last time when Keith could ask Coran to shoot the asteroid behind them. They no longer had the support of the castleship, and even if they did, an asteroid wasn’t comparable to Earth. They were stuck. It was the end of the line.

Keith had failed the people that he had sworn to protect. 

“Shiro,” Keith winced.

He was met with no response.

“Shiro? Lance?”

Still, there was no reply. The intercom must have been down. 

It was just his luck. He kept quiet about his feelings for so long, thinking that Shiro would never look at him the same way that Keith looked at him. He was just a mentor, just a teacher, just a leader, just _like a_ _ brother _ . He’d lost Shiro so many times just as he was about to tell him the truth and time after time, Shiro came back to him but the courage never did. At least, not until it was too late. 

He’d been so distracted worrying that Shiro would leave that he never considered that one day, it could be his turn to go. 

“Shiro,” he whispered, “I’m so sorry I never--”

All he saw next was blinding white. Then, the edges of his vision dissolved into black. 

“Keith? Keith? Wake up, baby, please wake up.”

Keith opened his eyes and saw Shiro all teary-eyed and red-faced. His heart was still racing from his nightmare, but looking at Shiro was calming him down. It was a dream. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. Shiro was real. 

But so was that moment that crept into his nightmares. When it happened, Keith really thought that his time was up. Then, Atlas jumped in front of Voltron, coming in between them. Shiro saved him. Again.

“Was…” his voice scratched his throat as it emerged. “Was I screaming?”

Shiro had turned on a lamp, probably to check if Keith was still alive. Even with how dimly lit the room was, Keith could see Shiro’s eyes turn soft and the corner of his lips curl into a smile. He had that same look when he told Keith that he loved him too. 

God, he was so beautiful. 

“No, you just went… cold…You felt as cold as you were when I carried you out of Black’s cockpit… I really thought I was losing you again.”

His heart clenched. That was a feeling that was all too familiar to Keith. He took Shiro’s left arm and pulled him down into a hug, his bruised and aching chest be damned. He ran his fingers through Shiro’s hair, marvelling at how soft it was in spite of everything that he’d endured. Some things, Keith decided, were just impossible for war to ruin. 

“I’m sorry. I’m here, I’m here,” he whispered as he stroked Shiro’s hair.

He felt Shiro’s left arm curl around his back beneath him. Ordinarily, he would have been fine with it except that he’d only been out of the infirmary for two days. There was a lot the still hadn’t healed. He tried to stop himself from groaning, but the pain was more than he could tolerate.

“Shit, I’m sorry. Where does it hurt?”

“Lower back, right above-- Wait, what are you doing?”

Before he could protest, Shiro had gotten up and gently flipped him over so that he was lying on his stomach. His fingers firmly kneaded Keith’s back, rubbing deep into his sore points. Truthfully, Keith never liked getting massaged because it always seemed to hurt more than it helped. But when Shiro was the one massaging him, it felt almost ungrateful to ask him to stop. 

“Does that feel better?”

“Mmmmrhh.”

Shiro stopped massaging him and bent down to kiss the base of his neck. Keith shuddered, his body still not used to Shiro’s affections. 

After Shiro’s speech to the rest of the Garrison, he had rushed back to the infirmary as soon as he heard that Keith had already woken up. Before Keith could even get in a word, Shiro had thrown his arms around him and hugged him so tightly that he thought that he’d never let go. They’d been together since, but it has been about as romantic as dating while half of the couple is strapped to a hospital bed could get. 

Not that Keith was complaining. Any time he could spend with Shiro was good enough, especially when those times weren’t just punctuations in the great passage of war. 

Besides, he usually came in his Garrison uniform and damn, did he fill it out. 

“Do you want to go back to sleep? Do you want to talk about your nightmare? Do you want me to make you some tea? Do you--”

“Shiro,” Keith cut him off, “I’m fine. But...”

“Yes?” 

“There is something you can do for me.”

“What is it?”

He could have said it in two words, but his lizard brain decided that it was too difficult. Instead, he went the ambiguous route. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Wait, what? What is it?”

Keith wasn’t even looking directly at Shiro when he felt his face burning up. “You know…”

“Oh.”

Keith sighed. Finally, Shiro understood what he was getting at, he thought. Well, that was what he thought until a firm hand came down hard on his ass. Keith jumped up and yelped, “What was that for?”

“I thought you wanted--”

“I WANTED YOU TO CUDDLE ME!”

“OH.”

They stared at each other for a good minute before both of them were choking on their laughter. Keith lied back down into their bed, this time on his side. The mattress shifted a little beneath him, then he felt Shiro’s chest pressed up against his back, his warm cheek touching his own. 

“You know what’s great about this new arm?” Shiro said softly.

“What?”

“I don’t have to worry about my right arm falling asleep when I’m the big spoon.”

Keith let out a breathy laugh. 

He pulled Shiro’s left hand up to his face and pressed a kiss into each finger, then the back of his hand, like he was marking out stars on a map. Every part of him was connected to each other, and to Keith. Their hands, their cheeks, their lips, their hearts. And as he drifted off to sleep, he wondered what the constellations they were forming looked like. 

Maybe eons into the future, there would be children in classrooms learning about the stars that made up the two lovers who never gave up on each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading till the end! I would really appreciate it if you left kudos and comments.
> 
> Come scream at me @stellar-parallax on tumblr!


End file.
